Easy to wonder what Sanders hopes to find on his stadium tour

That doesn’t mean Jerry Sanders will do the same, or that the city’s coffers will allow him to do the same. Nor does it mean the Chargers’ value to San Diego should only be measured monetarily. (Heck, even Designated Antagonist Mike Aguirre knows that.) Still, for the purposes of protecting the public purse, a lame-duck mayor looking to secure his legacy may have a hard time saying no, much less, “Hell, no,” to a team with deep roots in his community and potential relocation options.

If George Santayana was right, and “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” Susan Golding’s experience should convince Sanders of the need to negotiate with the Chargers at arm’s-length and to heed the advice of professionals rather than the emotions of the moment.

Author Neil deMause, whose “Field Of Schemes” website tracks stadium transactions with a heaping helping of skepticism, cites the experience of former St. Louis Rams stadium consultant Jim Nagourney as evidence of cities being overmatched at the bargaining table. In an essay published this month in The Nation, deMause recounts the Rams’ negotiating a “state-of-the-art” clause that has handcuffed St. Louis much as the ticket guarantee did San Diego.

“The city was poorly represented — the city is always poorly represented,” Nagourney said. “We put in all of these ridiculous things, and the city didn’t have the sense to say no to any of them. …

“A city attorney is not going to know where the money really is. They’re not going to understand advertising, they’re not going to understand concessions — just a whole range of issues that the team officials intimately understand. They know where the dollars are, and the municipal attorneys do not.”

Asked Tuesday what Sanders might learn from his travels, deMause described two of his tour stops (Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium and Kansas City’s Sprint Center) as “cautionary tales.” The mayor is advised to tread carefully.